I ended my main blog & idk why I’m still writing this blog. I’ll still refer people to past posts but the word vegan bothers me, as it has for years (not sure I explained on here). Not bc it’s mainstream but since it’s mainstream:

There’s a timestamp, but you can rewind. Also the next woman said cashew milk & idk why people even need milk and I say this from the cultures of coffee & chai. Firstly cashew is cruel but vegans say that one season and forget it the rest of the time. 3 generations before women were housewives and didn’t have to go to school and in that context, I have ancestors who drank their tea with coconut milk. Tamil culture was coconut not cow milk and yoghurt, if you’re Tamil and confused they usurped your culture, research by yourself and give up the shit you don’t need, religion included. I quit tea at 18! Then I quit religion. I quit coffee at 30 something and it’s true what one privileged guy says, diet alone can make one feel awake and energised all day. Mine has high protein brekkie bc it’s all I can find, I’m allergic to many grains. I eat fruit and often, some grated coconut with it. We don’t need what we don’t need.
Another point, close to home, goat meat seems sustainable, no? But goat or some such caused desertification in South Africa in a valley where now they grow rosemary for essential oils. This was a natural place depleted of vegetation by goats of a white farmer. He’s still exploiting the place for profit. This is land they should give back without compensation, that is the main issue. They can’t be getting compensation for land they have wrung dry for profit for decades. It’s been over a decade that I have been hearing of droughts affecting the Eastern cape or rural places where they used to be able to plant. This summer the whole Cape is at risk of facing droughts again like early this year. See it rains in winter and they have to stock the water for the rest of the year, tourist season included. I did my bit and moved away I guess, that too after being vegan for a decade during the time I lived there. For the past 5 years or so, I call it Al-Ma’arrist not vegan.

“There’s paleo, and then there’s the raw diet. Folks who eat raw tout the health benefits of the approach, saying that they’re accessing the full, complete nutrients available because they’re not heating, and thus destroying, their dinner. But that’s simply wrong. We cook to get our hands on more nutrients, not fewer. According to Wrangham, the one thing absolutely all cultures have in common is that they cook their food. He points out that women who move towards 100 percent raw diets often stop ovulating, because even if in theory they’re tossing sufficient food into the blender to fulfill their caloric needs, they simply can’t absorb enough from the uncooked food.

Our hefty cousins, the apes, spend half their waking hours gnawing on raw sustenance, about six hours per day. In contrast, we spend only one hour. “So in a sense, cooking opens up this space for other activities,” says Pollan. “It’s very hard to have culture, it’s very hard to have science, it’s very hard to have all the things we count as important parts of civilization if you’re spending half of all your waking hours chewing.” Cooked food: It gave us civilization.” Source.

“We are worth more than avocados and cheap labor. While being vegan, we need to advocate for higher wages for farm workers and more rights for them. Also, this is not an excuse to continue to support violence against animals because Mexicans and other Native Americans are exploited at slaughterhouses and animal farmers too.
#wefeedyou #whiteveganism Check out @nativeamericanvegans @foodempowermentproject and @veganhiphopmovement!”

Boricua – horchata de ajonjoli, this drink is made by boiling water, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and then soaking it overnight with ground sesame seeds. In the morning, the resulting mixture is strained with cheesecloth and served chilled (sometimes with a splash of rum).

Ecuadorean horchata is entirely different than the varieties found in the rest of Latin America. To make this drink, more than 28 medicinal plants are infused to create a red herbal tea which is then served with lemon juice and honey. It’s common in the Andean region of Loja where it’s sold hot or cold and said to treat a variety of ailments. Some of the most common herbs found in this horchata variety are chamomile, mint, lemon verbena, lemongrass, bloodleaf, and rose geranium.

*Note: I season with a little salt about every other ingredient, not a lot, just a pinch.

In a wok or straight sided sautè pan, add a tsp of oil and sauteed diced half of onion until soft, add garlic, ginger, and chili flake. Sautè until fragrant, then add rice cauliflower. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly, until it loses its raw appearance/texture. Remove from pan and set aside. Return pan to heat and add another tsp of oil. Add sliced half of onion and sautè for a min or two. Add mushrooms, then broccoli, followed by carrots, cashew, and finally pineapple- allowing each ingredient to cook for about a minute before adding the next. Add back the seasoned cauliflower and stir to combine. Taste for salt, remove from heat and sprinkle each bowl with a little tamari (or soy sauce) if you like.